Sports Fans,
First and foremost, Steelers (2-2) play at 1:00pm EST on Sunday and your Army Black Knights (2-3) take on Miami of Ohio on Saturday at the same time. Let's. Get. It.
Second of all, I've managed to procure a guitar. And a pick. Winning.
So I spent the last week in the capital city of Brazil, Brasilia. We went there expecting to train with the 4th year Intendência cadets and somehow ended up with Artilharia (kind of like Field Artillery). It was an interesting week to say the least. Besides a 2 days and a night in the field using light guns (105mm cannons, called "Light Guns" in Portuguese and pronounced, "Lie-tch Guns") and an anti-air demonstration of Brasil's braço forte (strong arm), there are several facts and running jokes from the week. And here they are;
1. Brasilia is quite a ways from Resende. 20 hours by bus. And when they go to the field, they really get out there. The running total of time spent sitting either on a bus or on an LMTV (@Cvilians, LMTV is a jagnormous 2.5 ton truck used to transport troops and equipment. It's uncomfortable when it's driven safely and pants-wettingly scary when driven 45 miles per hour (72.4 kilometers per hour) on dusty goat paths) between 1October and 7October barely passed 60 hours. I wish some of me was kidding.
2. Military presentations in Brasil tend to seem like someone is trying to sell you something, be it the newest anti-air defense system or the history of an artillery battery. Equally painful.
3. We saw a toucan. Like, a legit toucan. I dunno, it was a big deal at the time.
4. Light and noise discipline are important for tactical movements. For example, covering the head and tail lights of a truck make it difficult for the enemy to see it. Of course, it makes it difficult for you to see the road or for others driving to see you as well. Close calls. Very. Close.
5. We realized that there exist some eerie similarities between us and the adventurers in the Disney movie, "The Road to El Dorado". Nate's the big white horse, I'm the Tulio, and Orlando is Miguel.
6. We saw an artillery demonstration in which the cannons firing were behind us and the targets were in front of us. Something seems blatantly wrong about this but I can't put my finger on it.
7. The Brazilian Senate and Congress both take place in bowls. Not kidding.
8. The streets of Brasilia are kind of like Boston in the sense that they all go one-way. The only problem is, that one way is almost never your way. It took us several hours to get somewhere in the morning and the ride back was about 4 minutes. Blown away.
It was a long week. I might go to bed. Or play guitar more. Or go run. Not sure. Portuguese for the day is a few. "Buldogue" is pronounced "Bull Doggy" and means "Bull Dog" Thanks to the movie Rio I watched on the bus. In Portuguese. Without subtitles (sem legendas) It made my top 11 list.
Next is "não demora muito" which means "don't take too long". They say this to me a lot. I'm kinda slow :P
And finally is my favorite, "é mesmo" which literally means, "is the same" but is used often as an affirmation or a phrase of agreement.
That's all for now. I'm off to develop myself as a future leader of America.
Tchau!
Friday, October 7, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
The Field
Total Strangers,
Hope all is well in your various geographic locations. I come bearing stories (story, actually. Stories will come next week when we return from the capital, Brasilia) I should warn you all, this will likely be quite boring and highly unrelatable, not to mention a tad confusing if you don't have some sort of military background. To those that do, you probably know most of this scene all too well.
Our Brazilian cadete compatriots have been training hard in the field on little food and less sleep since Sunday at midnight. We spent Wednesday afternoon visiting them to see the type of training they go through and to watch some of their preparations. Late Wednesday night, we were invited to watch as the final operations orders came together. The officer overseeing instructed each of us to share our doubts about the plan following the briefing. "Duas duvidas cada um," he said, pointing to each of us in term, letting us know he wanted two questions out of each of us at the end of the briefing. I spent the better part of the next three hours splitting my time between finding fault with the plan (which, to the cadet commander's credit, was actually a very well planned amphibious assault, or as they say, "patrulha fluvial") and trying to figure out how to express it in Portuguese (my daily battle)
The time came and the, "cadetes norte-americano" were called to the front. I began explaining what I thought might be a flaw with the cadets actions on the objective when I was stopped. "No," the officer said in clear English, "you will tell them in English." Turning his attention to the group, he asked, "Quem aqui fala Inglês?" Not a single cadet moved, all hoping to avoid being spot lighted. "Ninguem?" he said, his voice rising slightly, "Ninguem aqui?" Finally, one cadet raised his hand unsteadily, "Brasil, Capitão" a quiet affirmation of his bilingual ability. "Good," he said, moving back to English, "Explain for the platoon what these cadets say."
We took our turns, speakingly slowly and often repeating ourselves to get the meaning across (I totally understand what it feels like to talk to me in Portuguese down here, haha thanks guys). Our cadet friends would quickly translate and the room would fill with nods and understanding. Then , a few cadets (some who could respond to us in English and then translate to the platoon and some who had to speak in Portuguese and have someone translate) would stand and offer their views. After we all shared, a Special Forces officer strode in and in Portuguese (that I totally understood, winning) asked all the cadets, "Why do we do this? Why are these American cadets here? When I was in (places doing things) I was working with Germans, with Englishmen, with Americans, with Canadians, with Africans, with Spaniards, with all sorts of different militaries. Do you know what language we used? English. English is the universal military language. Regardless of what you do in the military, you are going to end up dealing with people who do not speak your language. How are you going to communicate? How are you going to be an effective joint arms unit? These are the things you should all be focusing on as your time at the academy grows shorter. You will be candidates soon and officers soon after."
We drove back to the academy shortly thereafter. As cool as it was to get a look at the training, it was even cooler to have someone who's been out and about tout the importance of international exchange and bilingual communication. I won't be forgetting that soon.
Portuguese for the day is Romeu which is Romeo in English, but it's pronounced with an H instead of an R. Homeu. I'm reading Romeu e Julieta. Which is Romeo and Juliet. In Portuguese. It's tough. Wish I knew what everyone was saying.
Have a great weekend, tchau!
Hope all is well in your various geographic locations. I come bearing stories (story, actually. Stories will come next week when we return from the capital, Brasilia) I should warn you all, this will likely be quite boring and highly unrelatable, not to mention a tad confusing if you don't have some sort of military background. To those that do, you probably know most of this scene all too well.
Our Brazilian cadete compatriots have been training hard in the field on little food and less sleep since Sunday at midnight. We spent Wednesday afternoon visiting them to see the type of training they go through and to watch some of their preparations. Late Wednesday night, we were invited to watch as the final operations orders came together. The officer overseeing instructed each of us to share our doubts about the plan following the briefing. "Duas duvidas cada um," he said, pointing to each of us in term, letting us know he wanted two questions out of each of us at the end of the briefing. I spent the better part of the next three hours splitting my time between finding fault with the plan (which, to the cadet commander's credit, was actually a very well planned amphibious assault, or as they say, "patrulha fluvial") and trying to figure out how to express it in Portuguese (my daily battle)
The time came and the, "cadetes norte-americano" were called to the front. I began explaining what I thought might be a flaw with the cadets actions on the objective when I was stopped. "No," the officer said in clear English, "you will tell them in English." Turning his attention to the group, he asked, "Quem aqui fala Inglês?" Not a single cadet moved, all hoping to avoid being spot lighted. "Ninguem?" he said, his voice rising slightly, "Ninguem aqui?" Finally, one cadet raised his hand unsteadily, "Brasil, Capitão" a quiet affirmation of his bilingual ability. "Good," he said, moving back to English, "Explain for the platoon what these cadets say."
We took our turns, speakingly slowly and often repeating ourselves to get the meaning across (I totally understand what it feels like to talk to me in Portuguese down here, haha thanks guys). Our cadet friends would quickly translate and the room would fill with nods and understanding. Then , a few cadets (some who could respond to us in English and then translate to the platoon and some who had to speak in Portuguese and have someone translate) would stand and offer their views. After we all shared, a Special Forces officer strode in and in Portuguese (that I totally understood, winning) asked all the cadets, "Why do we do this? Why are these American cadets here? When I was in (places doing things) I was working with Germans, with Englishmen, with Americans, with Canadians, with Africans, with Spaniards, with all sorts of different militaries. Do you know what language we used? English. English is the universal military language. Regardless of what you do in the military, you are going to end up dealing with people who do not speak your language. How are you going to communicate? How are you going to be an effective joint arms unit? These are the things you should all be focusing on as your time at the academy grows shorter. You will be candidates soon and officers soon after."
We drove back to the academy shortly thereafter. As cool as it was to get a look at the training, it was even cooler to have someone who's been out and about tout the importance of international exchange and bilingual communication. I won't be forgetting that soon.
Portuguese for the day is Romeu which is Romeo in English, but it's pronounced with an H instead of an R. Homeu. I'm reading Romeu e Julieta. Which is Romeo and Juliet. In Portuguese. It's tough. Wish I knew what everyone was saying.
Have a great weekend, tchau!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Wow it's already 4:28 AM
A gente (people),
So watch out for the internet. She'll get you every time. After returning from Rio today (at like 10:30. Totally reasonable time) and wanting only to watch UFC 135 and go to bed (Saturday night, what a LOSER) I somehow find myself trying to find ways to justify the fact that it's already 4:30 AM on Sunday and UFC ended at like a little after midnight. So with some rough math (I'd like to apologies anyone who's ever had the distinct disappointment of teaching me math; you're about to get even sadder) and a little introspection (and he talks to himself..........) I think I've got it figured out.
12:30ish UFC 135 ends (props to Mark Hunt and Jon Jones)
12:30ish to 1:00 Simultaneous Facebooking and Amazon shopping. Said hi to long lost friends (what's up, Matt Lai) and also took Amazon shopping cart from $270.56 worth of useless garbage to $255.61. My bargain skills are razor sharp.
1:00 to 1:37 Followed a whole mess of people on Twitter (@BrianChrisG, get at me) as well as scoped out some possible late semester activities (Soccer games and Oktoberfest. Woot.)
1:37 to 1:38 Had the intuitive feeling that I forgot something extremely important but could not (and still cannot) for the life of me remember what it is.
1:38 to 2:13 Thought I might remember by checking Amazon. Knocked cart down (again) to $245.69 (You.Can't.Stop.Me.)
2:14 Contemplated going to bed, total time of less than 12 seconds, then returned attention back to the internet.
2:14 to 2:25 Checked Mens Health website for new articles, read aforementioned articles, reflected on new, pertinent, and urgent health information contained therein. Continued living my life.
2:25 to 2:24 Went back in time.
2:24 (the second one......never mind) to 2:40ish Simultaneously Facebooked and noticed that Rock in Rio has been on for 2 hours on TV. Snow Patrol had sound issues and then the Red Hot Chili Peppers kept making jokes in English (which no one but me understood. Sweet)
2:40 to 3:30ish Watched Rock in Rio and tried to figure out what I'm doing for spring break (Back to Brazil? I kind of miss cold weather, maybe somewhere that has snow. Or maybe home. There's something infinitely appealing about working out all day and eating nothing but PB & J.)
3:30 to 3:35 Become captivated by Brazilian tele-novelas as the Peppers leave (no encore?!?! Guys.....c'mon)
3:35 to 3:59 Forcefully tear attention away from TV and back to the Internet. Conduct research on who's in concert near NY after the New Year. Find no one. Decide to instead reorganize my favorites. They're still a mess.
3:59 to 4:27 Tried for the eleventh time to get into my webmail account (epic fails all night) while simultaneously Facebooking, and noticing that there's a tranny on the televison show. Wonder how this looks if someone comes in right now. Reach for remote. Too far. Guess we're watching tranny dramas.
4:27 Realize it's 4:27. Decide that's too late to have stayed up without accomplishing anything and that I should definitely blog about this.
4:28 until Now: Blogging. Also changed my Facebook and Twitter profile pictures because I want to look hip. Which makes no sense because both pictures are shoulders up and chest up respectively (what's up bad puns?)
I've also decided that I should probably actually go to bed. It's like 4:51. I feel like I might be doing something tomorrow, too. I dunno what but it's probably that thing I forgot like 3 hours ago. Wish me luck.
Portuguese word of the day (yeah, it's been a while, shut up) is, "A gente vai" which literally means, "the people go" but is more often used than the "we" form. Brazilians love (I'm allowed to generalize. It makes everything easier and it's always true, right?) using the third person so when people ask the us what we're doing this weekend, we can respond with the Portuguese equivalent of, "The people are going to Rio de Janeiro to sip coconuts on the beach and darken their pasty white skin in the bright Brazilian sun" and I won't sound like I'm arbitrarily inflating my sense of self worth by referring to me and two of my friends as, "the people"
So I was gonna check this grammatical errors but I just reached into my pocket and found two big piles of blind faith. I think I'll use those now.
Tchau for now! (Blown away that you read this far, to be honest. Sorry if you were expecting something.)
So watch out for the internet. She'll get you every time. After returning from Rio today (at like 10:30. Totally reasonable time) and wanting only to watch UFC 135 and go to bed (Saturday night, what a LOSER) I somehow find myself trying to find ways to justify the fact that it's already 4:30 AM on Sunday and UFC ended at like a little after midnight. So with some rough math (I'd like to apologies anyone who's ever had the distinct disappointment of teaching me math; you're about to get even sadder) and a little introspection (and he talks to himself..........) I think I've got it figured out.
12:30ish UFC 135 ends (props to Mark Hunt and Jon Jones)
12:30ish to 1:00 Simultaneous Facebooking and Amazon shopping. Said hi to long lost friends (what's up, Matt Lai) and also took Amazon shopping cart from $270.56 worth of useless garbage to $255.61. My bargain skills are razor sharp.
1:00 to 1:37 Followed a whole mess of people on Twitter (@BrianChrisG, get at me) as well as scoped out some possible late semester activities (Soccer games and Oktoberfest. Woot.)
1:37 to 1:38 Had the intuitive feeling that I forgot something extremely important but could not (and still cannot) for the life of me remember what it is.
1:38 to 2:13 Thought I might remember by checking Amazon. Knocked cart down (again) to $245.69 (You.Can't.Stop.Me.)
2:14 Contemplated going to bed, total time of less than 12 seconds, then returned attention back to the internet.
2:14 to 2:25 Checked Mens Health website for new articles, read aforementioned articles, reflected on new, pertinent, and urgent health information contained therein. Continued living my life.
2:25 to 2:24 Went back in time.
2:24 (the second one......never mind) to 2:40ish Simultaneously Facebooked and noticed that Rock in Rio has been on for 2 hours on TV. Snow Patrol had sound issues and then the Red Hot Chili Peppers kept making jokes in English (which no one but me understood. Sweet)
2:40 to 3:30ish Watched Rock in Rio and tried to figure out what I'm doing for spring break (Back to Brazil? I kind of miss cold weather, maybe somewhere that has snow. Or maybe home. There's something infinitely appealing about working out all day and eating nothing but PB & J.)
3:30 to 3:35 Become captivated by Brazilian tele-novelas as the Peppers leave (no encore?!?! Guys.....c'mon)
3:35 to 3:59 Forcefully tear attention away from TV and back to the Internet. Conduct research on who's in concert near NY after the New Year. Find no one. Decide to instead reorganize my favorites. They're still a mess.
3:59 to 4:27 Tried for the eleventh time to get into my webmail account (epic fails all night) while simultaneously Facebooking, and noticing that there's a tranny on the televison show. Wonder how this looks if someone comes in right now. Reach for remote. Too far. Guess we're watching tranny dramas.
4:27 Realize it's 4:27. Decide that's too late to have stayed up without accomplishing anything and that I should definitely blog about this.
4:28 until Now: Blogging. Also changed my Facebook and Twitter profile pictures because I want to look hip. Which makes no sense because both pictures are shoulders up and chest up respectively (what's up bad puns?)
I've also decided that I should probably actually go to bed. It's like 4:51. I feel like I might be doing something tomorrow, too. I dunno what but it's probably that thing I forgot like 3 hours ago. Wish me luck.
Portuguese word of the day (yeah, it's been a while, shut up) is, "A gente vai" which literally means, "the people go" but is more often used than the "we" form. Brazilians love (I'm allowed to generalize. It makes everything easier and it's always true, right?) using the third person so when people ask the us what we're doing this weekend, we can respond with the Portuguese equivalent of, "The people are going to Rio de Janeiro to sip coconuts on the beach and darken their pasty white skin in the bright Brazilian sun" and I won't sound like I'm arbitrarily inflating my sense of self worth by referring to me and two of my friends as, "the people"
So I was gonna check this grammatical errors but I just reached into my pocket and found two big piles of blind faith. I think I'll use those now.
Tchau for now! (Blown away that you read this far, to be honest. Sorry if you were expecting something.)
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Judô and Fazendo Nada
Thugsters,
Hope all is well in your corner of the world. Half of our brothers from Intendência are draggin' body and soul through the mud and the other half leaves on Sunday as the first half returns. That leaves the Americans sitting high and dry on a week filled mostly with classes and a rifle range here and there (Or "fazendo nada" which is "doing nothing". Tranquilo = Tranquil in English.
I've been going to Judô practices (for my Americans out there, it's pronounced, "Jew-Dough" but shorten the second syllable and drop your jaw so the "O" sound is shorter and your mouth is smaller) at nights. What with Combatives class scheduled for my return, I gotta make sure I'm ready! I've mostly been getting my butt kicked (as I learned with Jiu Jitsu, which I still attend sometimes, good wrestling instincts will get your arm ripped out in Judô or Jiu Jitsu. Hooray)
I'm off to practice now as a matter of fact. Weekend in Rio starting tomorrow (long weekend.......again. This is my life) so I gotta go prep the muscles for the beach. Should be some stories when I get back. See you all Monday morning!
Tchau!
Hope all is well in your corner of the world. Half of our brothers from Intendência are draggin' body and soul through the mud and the other half leaves on Sunday as the first half returns. That leaves the Americans sitting high and dry on a week filled mostly with classes and a rifle range here and there (Or "fazendo nada" which is "doing nothing". Tranquilo = Tranquil in English.
I've been going to Judô practices (for my Americans out there, it's pronounced, "Jew-Dough" but shorten the second syllable and drop your jaw so the "O" sound is shorter and your mouth is smaller) at nights. What with Combatives class scheduled for my return, I gotta make sure I'm ready! I've mostly been getting my butt kicked (as I learned with Jiu Jitsu, which I still attend sometimes, good wrestling instincts will get your arm ripped out in Judô or Jiu Jitsu. Hooray)
I'm off to practice now as a matter of fact. Weekend in Rio starting tomorrow (long weekend.......again. This is my life) so I gotta go prep the muscles for the beach. Should be some stories when I get back. See you all Monday morning!
Tchau!
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